It is with sadness that we report on a serious stroke suffered by Jim Baen. Cory Doctorow has this to say about Jim, "Baen Books publish many long-running series, and were true pioneers in producing non-DRM, freely available ebooks of their print editions, correctly intuiting that giving away electronic books sells printed books. Jim and I have corresponded and I've always been impressed with his shrewdness, kindness and commitment to writers and the field."

According to information posted by Julie Cochrane, a Bean author, "Jim Baen is in the ICU after a stroke, it is serious, Toni [Weisskopf] and a relative are there with him. Now you know as much as we do about his condition. Baen Books is functioning under the very detailed emergency plans that Jim has in place."

I'm not sure the prognosis, but most certainly we offer our best wishes to Jim and his family, with hopes for a full and fast recovery.

It is a sincere loss to the industry if he's forced out to retirement, of sorts, because of this. Baen has led an unwilling industry down the NonDRM road, and it's because of Baen specifically that I have enjoyed many sci fi books. It's rather interesting to point out that because they seed the market electronically, I now also have two full bookshelves of their paperbacks, doublestacked, of books,... with a vast many belonging to authors publishing under Baen.

My wife and I thank Jim Baen for his superb efforts in the past, and wish our heartfelt best wishes and hopes for a strong and speedy recovery. Strokes aren't fun to deal with. It'll never truly be completely healed.